Education Graduate Group Policy on Fairness of Authorship
Credit in Collaborative Faculty-Student Publication
March 1999
The Graduate Group in Education is committed to research collaboration between faculty and students and encourages faculty and students to engage a wide circle of specialists (across research, practice, and policy) in research activities and projects that emanate from them. All doctoral students are required to participate in a research apprenticeship, research assistantships, and courses that require fieldwork and other data-collecting activities that may result in published work.
1. Authorship roles. It is to everyone's benefit if there is a clear understanding about potential joint authorship roles whenever there is a research collaboration between and among faculty and students, whether students are assigned as apprentices, class members, hired assistants, etc. Initial roles often change over the course of a project and should be discussed as circumstances such as the nature and amount of students' contributions change.
2. Authorship rights.
a. Authorship is not presumed to be a right obtained by association with a research project. Hence, there is a need for prior understandings, as stated above in Authorship roles.
b. In general, authorship implies that the person made a major substantive contribution to the research being reported.
3. Authorship order. The order of names should be agreed upon mutually, preferably at the outset of any research activity. The person making the greatest scientific contribution is the first author. Subsequent authors are listed in order of decreasing scientific contribution. If contributions are spread equally, the order of authors is usually alphabetical.
4. Ownership of data.
a. Data gathered for a research project or program of research under a Principal Investigator (PI) -- through a grant or otherwise -- are the property of the PI. It is an academic tradition that such data are not used without the PI's permission, unless they have been made part of a public archive. In either case, proper acknowledgements are expected.
b. It is presumed that the person who conceptualized the project, secured the funding, developed the research instruments, etc. should review any publications or other public presentations from the project and give his or her permission if something from the project is to be published without his or her name on it.
5. Student authorship. A student is presumed to have authorship of his or her master's thesis and/or doctoral dissertation and is encouraged to publish any parts or all of the approved thesis or dissertation unless there have been some prior restrictions to which the student has agreed, e.g., that authorship must be shared with others contributing to the project or to wait for a jointly authored or edited book combining several theses.
6. Anticipation of problems. It is impossible to anticipate all potential problems. We believe that mutual respect, trust, and clear communication will forestall most difficulties. However, should disagreement about authorship arise and be unresolved by the people involved, it is recommended that the matter be referred to the Chair of the Graduate Group for prompt consideration and suggested resolution. The Graduate Group Chair may consult with other members of the graduate faculty as appropriate and warranted.